August 19th Letter

19 Agosto 2013
 
Yo estoy bien. Me gustó la reunión de zona que tuvimos. No estoy muy
muy animado, pero por lo menos contento.
Tuvimos una experiencia muy buena el jueves. Estábamos buscando N.
con un miembro para visitarles, pero no estaba. Al lado vive un
futuro, y golpeamos la puerta. No quisieron contestar, y una hija
salió y no respondió y se fue de la casa. Pero vimos una familia
afuera de una casa de un futuro que nunca pudimos visitar. Fuimos a la
casa y preguntamos de la persona. Se mudó, pero ellos viven allí
ahora. Los hijos estaban moviendo cosas de afuera de la casa, y les
ayudamos con eso. Después llegó la pareja, y él nos agradeció. Él era
un poco más tímido y crítico. Entramos y cantamos, y explicamos del
Libro de Mormón. Dejamos libros con la familia, y el padre está
leyendo y entiende muy bien. Son cinco en la familia.
Estamos trabajando mucho con los miembros. Cada lección con miembro si
se puede. El líder misional está trabajando duro/muy bien y con ánimo.
Vamos a ver muchas cosas buenas muy pronto.
 
We had an amazing week. Sadly my Brazilian Companion was called
another direction, but he seems to be doing well.

 
Mom and Dad, I just want to say before I continue that I´m thankful
for you both.  You have taught me a lot and I´m thankful for that as
well. I´m happy that you are serving a mission again, and that you are
doing well. Thank you for having such strong testimonies of the
gospel, at least from the time I started to understand.  Thank you mom
and dad.
 
Hey we have a family here in our ward that are fanatics about
genealogy. It´s amazing. I´m not excited to do the work, but to have
experiences like that would strengthen my testimony incredibly. The
dad says that going to the temple is like a henhouse where they teach
you to fly. You might be a chicken in the metaphor, but at least you
can fly.  Then you leave the temple after the work is done, and you
start to forget to fly, and you´re walking or even not doing anything
at all.  Genealogy will keep you in flight.
 
Sometimes the work is like their fishing but in Chile, something
really cool at least happens every day, and
the people are ready for the gospel here!  Found a family 3 days
ago!!! They´re reading the Book of Mormon! The dad said he had a dream
like Lehi in First Nephi, and he was the skeptical one, but now he´s
rather intrigued. He has many many doubts and questions, but we keep
stressing the importance of asking Heavenly Father to know if it´s all
true or not.  That´s one of the most important things. He also feels
that he isn´t worthy to ask about it because he says he´s a sinful
man.

I want to testify here that Heavenly Father is not a grudge holding
God.  Firstly, He knows that we are going to make mistakes, and that´s
why He sent His son to give us the ability to repent and change, and
be forgiven completely.  He doesn´t take away your agency and make you
repent, but he sure does want you to do it, and willing and ready and
happy to forgive.  My invitation to all is to avoid sinning, for one,
because it only brings embarrassment and feelings that you can´t talk
to Heavenly Father even though that´s not true, and for two, Repenting
is a harder task than holding on and not sinning.
 
I love this area, the members, my companion, and the investigators.
Agency of theirs is tough and frustrating at times, but we learn how
to deal with it. I have learned from my companion that if you´re
persistent and don´t let them sit down on their excuses and give them
little pushes as they try to tell you they can´t, 90 percent of the
time they learn that they really CAN do it, they just doubted too
much. Se ponen límites. -They put limits on themselves-
 
We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates for the 4th, but we
worry... they have to attend church more!  Excited for baptism though.
 
Okay. Now here´s the part that comes directly from my noggin... The
part that doesn´t ever make sense unless I´m in a lesson and the
Spirit´s helping me. haha
 
My new companion started his mission here and spent 6 months. . . 

We often wonder what the Lord has in store for us.
 He often knows the people we contact in the street and remembers what
the people were like 2 years ago. It´s a huge help. He finishes his
mission halfway through the change, so I´ll end up with a different
companion in a few weeks as well.  He´s from El Salvador. It´s a tiny
island that apparently is a part of North America.  The people keep
thinking we´re making a joke when we tell them where he´s from because
in spanish, El Salvador means ¨The Savior¨...
If you want to know his personality, just find Nate N. He´s
basically his twin.  It´s rad.
 
But hey, There are ups and downs on the mission. Don´t get
discouraged. And yes, I am talking to myself here too.  It´s  amazing.
Love you all. Keep praying and being awesome as people and members.